How Russia rehearsed to counter Western interference in the 2024 elections

Russian elections have undergone an unprecedented attack from unfriendly countries, the Central Election Commission announced. However, although the commission assured that absolutely everything was “easily reflected,” this was “just the beginning” and “a rehearsal for the presidential elections in 2024.” “With each new attack we only become stronger,” warned CEC member Igor Borisov.

According to him, this vote was distinguished by the fact that Western opponents switched to threats to social activists. “These days, our good friends from the Public Chamber – excellent specialists and human rights activists – began to receive messages containing threats and intimidation on their mobile phones. Because they were actively involved in issues of monitoring and surveillance at polling stations,” he said. The chamber members themselves, in turn, conducted an analysis and calculated an entire index of information pressure on the Russian elections.

An incredibly high level compared to other years, according to Borisov, is seen in the number of foreign media publications about the elections in Russia – their number since September 1 has exceeded several hundred, and the largest flow of negativity was recorded from the so-called Anglo-Saxon countries. “In fact, international fake factories have been created <...> We can confidently say that for the first time, pressure on elections is organized and controlled by state structures of Western countries and NATO,” he concluded.

Foreign opponents are trying to work with our population, dragging citizens into “shady deals,” a member of the Central Election Commission believes. Borisov proudly declared that today there is not a single foreign agent in the system of the election commission: because this is prohibited by the law on foreign agents. At the same time, two foreign agents, having notified the election commission, participated in the elections as candidates. At the stage of registration of candidates, according to a member of the commission, attempts were made to hide their affiliation with foreign residents, but the commissions revealed them. It should be noted that the list of persons affiliated with foreign agents is closed for public viewing.

In conclusion, Borisov said that since the beginning of the three-day vote, about 30,000 attacks on DEG resources from the territory of states that commit unfriendly actions have been blocked.

Andrey Klimov, head of the Federation Council Commission for the Protection of State Sovereignty and Prevention of Interference in the Internal Affairs of the Russian Federation, immediately explained the reasons for such actions by Western countries. “They are trying to expand the range of interventions. Today, the United States is seriously discussing the topic of how they can destroy the BRICS through, among other things, interference in the internal affairs of the BRICS member countries. And they are doing this against the backdrop of the strengthening that is clearly visible in the BRICS part of the international arena,” the senator said. There are also attempts to “mental shift” of Russian citizens on the topic that the country has allegedly wrong electoral system and authorities – with an eye on 2024, he is convinced. Klimov stressed that there is no chance to split the state and society, since “the stability of the political system is only getting stronger.”

The head of the Duma Committee on Security and Anti-Corruption Vasily Piskarev drew attention to the fixation of “Western propaganda” on teenagers. The head of the Duma Security Committee emphasized that teenagers 12 years of age and older are currently the main target – they are the ones who will participate in voting and be candidates in a few years.

Piskarev also noted that the current elections close the cycle of training for the West on the destructive impact on the Russian presidential elections before the presidential ones. “During this period, a lot of methods of manipulative influence on voters and many technologies for destabilizing the internal situation in our country have been tested,” the parliamentarian said. We are talking about “ideological sabotage from the West” in relation to the entire electoral system.

Yevgeny Zaitsev, head of the control and supervision department in the field of electronic communications of Roskomnadzor, made a report on the department’s fight against “destabilizing information”. Over the past two years, according to Zaitsev, Russian courts have fined foreign IT sites more than 21 billion rubles. for failure to remove prohibited content. In addition to fines for refusing to remove illegal information, companies are subject to turnover fines (20% of revenue). According to him, fines totaling about 23 million rubles have already been imposed on foreign agents for lack of markings.